1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of cardiovascular machines. In particular, to handgrips on cardiovascular exercise machines which permit rotational movement of the wrist, hands, or arms during exercise.
2. Description of Related Art
The benefits of regular aerobic exercise on individuals of any age is well documented in fitness science, Aerobic exercise can dramatically improve cardiac stamina and function, as well as lead to weight loss, increased metabolism and other benefits. More of these benefits are reaped when a greater proportion of the body is active in aerobic exercise. This is because the body is generally more engaged, and users must be more balanced and coordinated. In addition, full-body aerobic exercise contributes to toning of the entire body rather than isolated portions.
The most common and accessible forms of aerobic exercise, namely running, walking, and bicycling, do not exercise participants' upper body or arms. To achieve the many benefits of full-body aerobic exercise, runners and walkers must concentrate on making exaggerated and often bizarre-looking movements to exercise their arms. Left to their own devices, such runners and walkers may engage in unsafe or ineffective movements or tire of the effort required and resort to only lower body movement. Bicyclists are generally completely without recourse for upper-body exercise.
A few stationary cardiovascular machines have attempted to address the problem of the absence of comfortable upper-body workouts in aerobic exercise. For example, on certain elliptical machines, a user uses a fairly natural motion to move their feet in a the smooth exercise pattern dictated by the machine, complemented by the user moving his or her arms in a reciprocating pumping type of motion while pulling or pushing various arms on the machine whose motion is connected to the motion of the feet, and vice-versa. Similar arms have also been combined with bicycling, in certain current models of stationary bicycles.
These arms fall short of providing an optimal full-body workout. Firstly, these arms guide the user to make only back-and-forth movements, without any rotational component of the wrist or arm. As such, only a very few muscle groups are activated, and the upper body workout does not burn as many calories or provide as many benefits as it could if it activated more muscle groups. In addition, the simple back-and-forth motion is considered boring by many users, and does not excite those users to optimize their workout. Current cardiovascular arms therefore do not present an engaging and stimulating full-body aerobic experience.
In addition, the back-and-forth motion provided by current cardiovascular machine arms is simply not ergonomic or comfortable for some users. The structure of the human forearm, wrist, and hand is such that arm-swinging is most natural and comfortable when the wrist rotates medially when the arm is extended in front of the exerciser. Current cardiovascular machine arms do not permit users to engage in this natural movement, and may even cause discomfort to some users. Because of the unnatural and potentially uncomfortable nature of current cardiovascular machine arms, many potential users forego the benefits of full-body aerobic exercise and do not use arms on present machines.
It is therefore desirable for cardiovascular machine arms to be structured such that the movement of those arms involves a rotational component, in order to increase the intensity of, interest in, and comfort of the workout provided, and thereby attract more users to the benefits of a full-body aerobic workout.